The use, operation, and maintenance of databases often involves data mining and reporting. These are often incompatible operations. Current data mining methods involve the duplication of a database's contents so that the data can be mined without disabling or otherwise interfering with the use of the production database. However, such methods necessarily employ data that is not current (i.e., because the duplicated database is being mined, changes in the production database will not be reflected until the database is reduplicated). Typically, the “lag” between the duplicated and production databases is between eight and 24 hours, an unacceptably long period in many instances.
Reporting methods suffer from similar deficiencies. For example, in order to ensure that the report reflects the most current and accurate state of the database, some reporting methods query the production database itself. This necessarily interferes with any concurrent use of the production database and may do so for several hours. In addition, in order to avoid having to repeat such queries and their consequent interference with the production database, the report output is typically stored outside the database itself. As a result, report outputs representing multiple states of the production database, none of which may be current, may be available to a user. A further deficiency in such a method is that the report output may be available to individuals who otherwise may not have the permissions necessary to access the production database itself, thus creating a security threat.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.